Safety showers, preferably with eyewash facilities, are a must for many chemical and industrial installations where the effects of chemical spillage, flash fires and the like can be minimized if involved personnel can have immediate access to copius amounts of flowing fresh water. Many types of safety showers are in use, those in temperate and cooler zones generally being equipped with thermostatically controlled heating using electrical induction or resistance heating means, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,274,619 issued Sept. 27, 1966, in order to assure continuing supply of water as the ambient temperature approaches, and drops below, the freezing point.
While heated safety showers have found wide acceptance, they are not entirely foolproof in that failure of electrical power, and hence inactivation of the heating means, can permit a freeze-up rendering the shower inoperative and possibly leading to major damage to the system.
In warmer climates, as in the southern portion of the United States the ambient temperature may reach the freezing point so infrequently that the provision of heated showers may not be economically prudent, yet a real problem can develop if a freak storm brings sub-freezing temperatures.
In such warmer climates, and in equatorial areas, another problem presents itself in that safety showers, even though provided with thermal insulation, may through exposure to direct sunlight develop dangerously high water temperature in the above-ground portion of the feed water piping. A safety shower belies its name if the critical surge of water when actuated is at near scalding temperature.
Thus it will be seen that safety showers at the present time fall far short of providing the all weather dependability which personnel in areas needing safety showers have every right to expect.